This week I’m recommending a Fantasy novel which features a rather unusual love-triangle involving a Man, a Dryad and a Minotaur. “The Forest of Forever” by Thomas Burnett Swann is set on the island of Crete around 1500 BCE. This novel, first published in America in 1971, is a prequel to “The Day of the Minotaur”, which originally appeared as a serial in Science Fantasy magazine under the title of “The Blue Monkeys”. A third story in this sequence was published after Swann’s death in a volume called “The Minotaur Trilogy” but I’ve never been able to get hold of this rare book. Fortunately old paperback copies of “The Forest of Forever” are easy to find – my Mayflower Books edition has a wonderful painting of a dryad by Brian Froud on the cover. This novel and the sequel are now also available as ebooks.

The story is told by Zoe, a 360 year old Dryad, who prides herself “on having enjoyed twice as many lovers as I have years.” She is one of the green-haired tree-nymphs who are bonded to mighty oaks in the Country of the Beasts. Most of Crete is inhabited by humans and ruled by King Minos but there is a great forest in the centre of the island which people are forbidden to enter. Inside this forest dwell the “Beasts”, creatures of legend such as Centaurs, Panisci (Goat Boys), Bear Girls, and Eunostos, the last of the Minotaurs.

Fifteen year-old Eunostos is a poet and craftsman whose best friends are a plump Paniscus called Partridge and Bion the Telchin “a three-foot, ant-like being” who makes exquisite jewellery. Eunostos regards Zoe as a kindly aunt but he’s madly in love with Kora, a beautiful young Dryad. Kora has dreams about visiting the great cities of Crete and meeting a valiant Man but she is unable to stray far from her oak. Meanwhile in the palace of Knossos, the king’s brother Prince Aeacus believes that a tree is whispering to him…

A time of peace and contentment is about to be shattered by two different groups of invaders – swarms of Bee-Folk known as the Thriae and Achaean warriors from the Greek mainland. The thieving Bee-Folk are ruled by seductive queens and one of them soon proves to be a danger to Kora and Eunostos. Zoe rallies her fellow Beasts to deal with this crisis but then a Man stumbles into the forbidden forest. Prince Aeacus has been wounded fighting a band of Achaean raiders. His meeting with Kora and Eunostos will have momentous consequences for their personal lives and for the future of two threatened civilizations.

Thomas Burnett Swann (1928-1976) was an American college professor who studied and wrote poetry. He was also the author of quite a number of Fantasy novels and novellas; many of them inspired by pre-Christian civilizations. Swann doesn’t really fit into the tradition of meticulously researched Fantasy written by academics. His work is quirky and rather slapdash. He often reused ideas and produced several versions of the same story. He admits in an Afterword to “The Forest of Forever” that there are lots of inconsistencies between this novel and its sequel “The Day of the Minotaur”. He was not a specialist in the culture and religions of the Ancient World. His rosy view of the far past as an era of sexual freedom and women’s liberation tells us more about the period at which the novels were written than about the complexities of the real Ancient World. As a scholar, I should probably disapprove of much of what Swann wrote but I’ve allowed myself to be seduced by the hippy charm of his fictional universe.

Among the attractions of this particular novel are the beautifully described sylvan setting and the simple but idyllic lifestyles of its inhabitants. Zoe explains that, “we dwelt with our forest, we never tried to master her, wound her, crush her to our purposes…the forest was our home, but we were its guests and not its masters.” This is Eco-friendly Fantasy. The lovelorn Minotaur creates a delightful home in a hollow tree with windows shaped like crescent moons, a fountain decorated with sea-shells, bamboo furniture (odd for Minoan Crete) and moss-stuffed cushions. He tries to please Kora by offering her “a jar of roasted acorns, a tray of snails soaked in olive oil, a cheese of bear’s milk, a basket of delicate sparrow eggs, and a weasel pie.” Swann obviously enjoyed subverting mythical stereotypes. His red-maned Minotaur has the strength of a mighty bull but Eunostos is a sensitive soul who makes friends with other species. The Centaurs in this book are majestic and sometimes drunken warriors but they also hang wind-chimes in their windows and keep pet pigs. A Greek myth about a girl turned into a bear is transformed into a whole race of shy creatures, part bear and part girl, who gather blackberries and weave necklaces of Black-eyed Susans. Swann cheerily throws races of his own invention into the mix, such as the insectoid Telchins and Thriae.

Zoe declares that, “If you demand a death or a rape on every tablet, my story is not for you.” “The Forest of Forever” is a gently paced read full of loveable characters; particularly Eunostos and his chums: faithful Bion and beer-loving Partridge, a Goat Boy who utterly fails to seduce anyone. You might therefore assume that the book is sunny and light-hearted all the way through but that isn’t the case. On the very first page, Zoe warns her readers that she will be describing “melancholy events”. There are no rigid laws or oppressive moral codes in the “Country of the Beasts” but Swann does show a darker side to this society. The Queens of the Bee-Folk are ruthless sexual predators and some of the Bear-Girls and Goat Boys lead a squalid existence under the influence of hemp. Nor does freedom of choice always ensure carefree relationships. Since Kora has two rival suitors, Eunostos and Aeacus, someone has to be the loser. Twice the story seems to have come to a happy ending but it continues into a time of pain and disillusionment. This is a book which suggests that finding your dream lover could be worse than losing them.

I first read “The Forest of Forever” years ago. When I picked the book up again recently I couldn’t recall much about the plot but I did remember the warm voice of the narrator. Zoe is a comic character telling a sad story. She jokes about her own ample charms and past conquests and makes bitchy comments about her sister Dryads (“her success lay in the fact that she said yes when she looked as if she would say no”). Her favourite poem The Indiscretions of a Dryad is “full of laughs and definitely not an epic”, which is a fair description of Zoe’s narrative too. This worldly-wise Dryad is a generous lover and a faithful friend. Zoe knows how to enjoy life to the full but she is not as jolly as she seems. She hides her true feelings for the one she loves best and suffers when her courageous efforts to help him don’t always succeed. “No one has ever seen me cry,” Zoe states. “I choose my times.” She’s a voice worth listening to. Until three weeks time….